Chiming I here. “Dude …” is a dumb thing to say in a debate. Please take take that over to Reddit.
Also chiming in here, it's not a big deal at all to call someone "dude", because this isn't a formal debate, it's just a web forum.
… the steady decline of HN over the decades …
The person complaining about saying "dude" already lowered the tone of the drasticaly debate by saying, apparently without a hint of irony, "stop thinking like a poor person." So I agree there's a lot of low quality, revolting posts here but the use "dude" doesn't really scratch the surface.
> “Dude …” is a dumb thing to say in a debate.
Is it insulting?
As a part of a retort in an argument, it’s similar to rolling one’s eyes. It’s also not substantive.
No, but it is annoying and when in a debate it tries to distract and/or claim some kind of familiarity or higher ground.
The comment I replied to had already lost any sort of higher ground at: